


Supernatural, Season 5, Episode 18, Point of No Return

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s05e18 Point of No Return, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 05, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 10:09:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16344791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and later seasons. Complete.





	Supernatural, Season 5, Episode 18, Point of No Return

Open to a man selecting music from a jukebox. He goes to sit down next to Zachariah, and this poor soul is about to be proof no good deed goes unpunished. He sympathetically notes, “Pink slip, huh?”

They bond a bit, and this poor soul writes off some of Zachariah’s more confusing statements as the alcohol plus the general emotional turmoil Zachariah’s in. Then, showing up in his true (unseen) form, Michael kills the poor soul and the innocent bartender. Zachariah talks, Michael makes whining noises, and Zachariah is happy he’s no longer side-lined.

Elsewhere, there’s a sad montage of Dean preparing himself for death.

However, Sam has found him. They argue, and Dean accuses Sam of always running away.

Sam doesn’t want Dean to say yes to Michael. “You know I have to stop you.”

Dean says Sam can try, but without the demon blood, he doesn’t have much, if any, chance of winning.

“Yeah, I know, but I brought help.”

Dean hears the rustling of wings. Scared but unsurprised, he turns around, and before he can react, Cas touches him on the forehead.

At Bobby’s, Sam and Bobby are researching.

Pacing, Dean cynically rants, and awesomely, standing in the background with his arms crossed, Cas watches Dean’s every movement like a hawk.

Bobby and Dean argue, and Bobby says “You can’t give up, son.”

Hitting him where it hurts, Dean untruly declares, “You’re not my father.”

Sam glares. Taking out a gun and a bullet, Bobby talks about how, every morning, he contemplates suicide. However, he never does, because, he promised Dean he wouldn’t give up.

Then, Cas gets a headache, announces something’s happening, and disappears in a gustier than normal exit.

In a forest, he fights off and kills two angels before helping a buried but living human out of the ground. Going back to Bobby’s in another absurd gust of wind, he calls for help with the human over his shoulder. Once the human’s deposited on a bed, the brothers stare in shock.

It’s their half-brother, Adam.

“Cas, what the hell,” Dean demands.

Setting down the angel blades he took from the other angels, Cas places his hand on Adam’s stomach to carve the anti-angel tracking symbols on Adam’s ribs. The pain causes Adam to wake up.

They try to explain who they are, and it turns out, he knows. He’s also been warned of them, and he demands to know where Zachariah is.

After he’s been cleaned up and given a drink, Adam explains he was in heaven when some angels came. They told him he was chosen to save the world by being Michael’s vessel. Dean protests, but Cas explains Adam does fit the basic qualifications, though, not as well as Dean. He jabs hard, “Maybe they wrongly assumed Dean would be brave enough to withstand them.”

“Alright, you know what? Blow me, Cas.”

Sam is incredulous about the angels suddenly having a plan B, and Adam tries to leave. He thinks the angels are obviously the good guys, and when it’s established they don’t have any other way to stop Lucifer, it makes him even more determined. Sam tries to appeal to their family connection, and Jake Abel does an excellent job when Adam angrily explains how John Winchester wasn’t his father or his family; his family has always been him and his mother.

Interestingly, he says he’ll get to see his mom if he does his job, but it doesn’t seem he’s angry at the angels for using this sort of manipulation against him.

Sam begs Adam to give them a little more time.

The next scene has Bobby trying to find a book, and Adam starts to leave. Sam appears. He tries to bond with Adam over the terribleness of John, but like many kids of single mothers, Adam brings up how hard it was for him and his mom. He doesn’t necessarily wish John had been a dad to him, but he does feel John should have done something to help his mother.

Meanwhile, Dean has been locked in the panic room. Cas and Sam open the door, and in response to Cas’s smouldering, angry glare, Dean says, “Cas, not for nothing, but the last person who looked at me like that, I got laid.”

Sam suggests Cas go babysit Adam. Cas glares even harder, and in response, Dean winks at him. Using his powers, Cas slams the door shut.

Dean is displeased but calm, and Sam points out, with a house full of flight risks, watching one person is hard enough.

I’m sincerely impressed with how Bobby, Sam, and Cas are handling this. The best solution is to watch one and use another method to keep the other from leaving. Understandably, no one wants to put the youngest and most innocent of all parties involved, who already strongly distrusts them, in the panic room or physically restrain him.

Dean insists he’s not letting Adam be taken in his place, and Sam agrees. However, he’s not letting Dean do it, either.

In response, Dean hits where he knows it will most hurt. Saying he doesn’t believe in Sam, he goes on about how Sam will eventually be taken over by Lucifer, and he’s not going to let Adam be the one to fight him.

Sam leaves.

Up above, Cas is watching Adam sleep, and for once, there’s nothing either creepy or somewhat cute about it. It’s his job to protect Adam, and he’s doing it.

Sam and Bobby come in. Cas leaves them alone to talk, and he hears something in the panic room. Dean refuses to answers, and when he looks through the peephole, he sees a table has been overturned. Going in, he finds a broken lamp, and Dean says, “Cas.”

It’s revealed he’s drawn an angel-banishing sigil. I think the implication is he used the lamp to cut himself, but he has no visible cuts on him. He places his hand on it, and Cas disappears.

However, Sam quickly discovers what happened. He tells Bobby to watch Adam, and Bobby points out an able-bodied teenager against a wheelchair-bound older man doesn’t spell out good odds for the latter.

Ordering him to cuff Adam if need be, Sam leaves.

Meanwhile, Adam dreams. He’s sitting in a park, and Zachariah appears. Asking if Adam is with Sam and Dean, he says Adam can’t trust them. Then, he asks the big question: Is Adam ready to see his mom, again?

Adam wakes up.

Elsewhere, there’s a bearded man preaching loudly on the streets. Dean introduces himself, and the man falls to his knees to pray.

Appearing, Cas makes the man sleep, and then, he starts beating Dean to a pulp. He rages about how Dean is making all he (Cas) did and sacrificed worthless.

Utterly defeated, Dean urges Cas to finish it.

I’m not sure if he’s telling Cas to finish the beating or to kill him, but whichever it is, even after becoming a crazed God who was betrayed and even after a warehouse full of practise, Cas never can do the former.

Slowly, Cas unclenches his fist, reaches out, and touches Dean. Dean loses consciousness.

At Bobby’s, Bobby explains to a confused, angry Sam that Adam literally disappeared in front of him. Cas appears with a bleeding, unconscious Dean. He explains Adam was taken by angels. When asked what happened to Dean, he answers, “Me.”

Tossing Dean on the bed Adam was inhabiting, Cas says Adam must have told them in a dream where he was.

In the pretty room, Adam dooms himself by eating a burger. Zachariah appears to reveal Adam is actually just bait to force Dean into saying yes. Adam is not happy, and unsympathetic, Zachariah makes him cough up blood.

Meanwhile, Dean wakes up handcuffed to the bed in the panic room. Sitting nearby, Sam asks how he’s feeling.

“Word to the wise: Don’t piss off the nerd angels,” Dean answers.

Sam tells him about Adam being taken, and Dean asks what Sam’s going to do. Starting to unlock the handcuffs, Sam says they’re going to rescue their little brother. He continues Dean isn’t going to say yes, because, despite Cas and Bobby’s objections, Sam has faith in him.

Dean points out, if the tables were turned, not only would he keep Sam in the panic room, but he has done so in the past.

“Yeah, well, I guess I’m not that smart,” Sam responds.

In California, Dean calls the green room “the beautiful room”, and I really like this piece of characterisation. He continues he thought it was on Jupiter or a blade of grass rather than an abandoned factory in California.

Despite Cas’s attitude, this in no way unreasonable on his part.

Cas tells them there are five angels inside. Taking off his tie and incredibly turning Dean on in the process, Cas says, “I’ll clear them out. You two grab the boy.”

Managing to keep the blood in his head, Dean asks if this isn’t suicide. Cas hits harder than ever as he answers, “Maybe it is, but then, I won’t have to watch you fail.” At Dean’s look, he continues, “Sorry, Dean. I don’t have the same faith in you that Sam does.”

Once, Cas had more faith in Dean than Sam did, and they both miss this. However, I think part of Cas does understand. Dean wants to save his loved ones and the world, and Cas doesn’t have an answer on how to do this without surrendering. Part of what originally drew Cas to Dean was Dean’s loyalty towards family.

Just as Dean couldn’t let Sam finish the trial, Cas can’t let Dean do this. It doesn’t matter if they can understand, it’s still something they can’t accept. Sam will always be the most important person to Dean, and Dean will always be the most important person to Cas. Cas, though, will always be the person Dean can never stop being in love with. He’s tried, but he’s been lost for a long time.

Next, Cas withdraws a pocket knife. This prompts an uneasy Sam to ask, “What in the hell are you going to do with that?”

The answer is soon revealed when Cas goes inside. He kills one angel, and the others surround him. Dropping his angel blade and urging them to come on, he reveals an angel sigil on his chest. He presses against it, and both he and them disappear.

Dean and Sam get to the pretty room, and Zachariah makes both Adam and Sam cough up blood. Promising to say yes, Dean orders Zachariah to call Michael. As Zachariah is, Dean looks down at Sam, and with his mouth twisting into a sardonic grin, he winks at his baby brother.

He proceeds to tell Zachariah one of the conditions of him saying yes is for Michael to kill Zachariah. Obviously panicked at the thought, Zachariah argues, and he gets close enough for Dean to stab him with an angel blade.

Dean helps Adam up, and after establishing Adam can walk, Dean goes to help Sam. Adam starts to follow them out, but the door closes before he can leave, and Michael takes Adam before Dean can get the door reopened.

Adam truly is a sympathetic character. Everything and everyone but his mother has screwed him over, and the one thing he wants is to be with her.

Later, in the car, the brothers drive in silence. They’ve lost their baby brother and their angel.

Sam asks what made Dean change his mind. Dean answers, with everything coming down, he looked down, and he didn’t want to let his brother down.

“You didn’t.”

“I owe you an apology.” He says, if Sam’s going to have faith in him, he’s going to have faith in Sam. He declares they’re going to screw destiny together.

“Sounds good.”

Fin.


End file.
